NTSB Opens Docket on Tesla Crash

6/19/2017

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WASHINGTON (June 19, 2017) – As part of its ongoing investigation into the fatal 2016 highway crash involving a Tesla Model S and a tractor-semitrailer truck near Williston, Florida, the National Transportation Safety Board on Monday opened the accident docket, releasing more than 500 pages of information.

System performance data downloaded from the Tesla revealed that the driver was operating the car using automated vehicle control systems: Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer lane keeping systems.

In this photo, the Tesla Model S following its recovery from the crash scene near Williston, Florida. (Photo by Florida Highway Patrol investigators)

The docket includes reports that cover various aspects of the investigation, including highway design, vehicle performance, human performance, and motor carrier factors. The crash reconstruction report, also included in the docket, provides a description of the crash sequence. The docket also includes interview transcripts and summaries, photographs, and other investigative material.

The docket contains only factual information collected by NTSB investigators; it does not provide analysis, findings, recommendations, or probable cause determinations. No conclusions about how or why the crash occurred should be drawn from the docket. Analysis, findings, recommendations, and probable cause determinations related to the crash will be issued by the Board at a later date.

On Saturday, May 7, 2016, a 2015 Tesla Model S 70D, traveling eastbound on US Highway 27A (US-27A) west of Williston, Florida, struck and passed beneath a refrigerated semitrailer powered by a 2014 Freightliner Cascadia truck-tractor. At the time of the collision, the truck was making a left turn from westbound US-27A across the two eastbound travel lanes. Impact with the right side of the semitrailer sheared off the roof of the Tesla. The driver and sole occupant of the Tesla died in the crash; the commercial truck driver was not injured.

The NTSB released the preliminary report for this crash on July 26, 2016.

More NTSB Links

The National
Transportation
Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent federal agency charged with
determining the probable cause of transportation accidents,
promoting
transportation safety, and assisting victims of transportation
accidents
and their families.